New student loan laws make them easier to pay back

By Jack, on November 1st, 2011

If you have student loans, there is good news from the Obama administration.

— Effective this January, if you’re someone who has different kinds of loans — guaranteed and direct — you’ll be able to roll them both into one direct loan and bring down your interest rate. You’ll only have to write one check a month, and you’ll see a discount.

— As part of last year’s student loan reform, borrowers’ loan payments could be no higher than 10 percent of their disposable income. This is a big deal — but it wasn’t going to help anyone enrolling before 2014. Today, the President announced that he’s speeding up this program so it will affect students in 2012 — helping over 1 million students. This will have huge consequences for people struggling to make their student loan payments.

The administration has put together a video explaining how these changes will help Americans. There, you can learn a little more about what these steps would do. Watch the video on New Student Loan Rules.